Saturday's Ride

Our weather's not been too great so this morning, even though it was cold it did warm up, some. It was still quite windy which added a wind chill. All that to say to find two guys to go out and ride some good hard hills was a bit difficult, I did get two. I could have joined some triathlon friends at 7:00 but is was 0°C, sunny though but too cold. We left at 9:00 with a few more degrees on the thermometer, and pounded some hills, and decided that the wind was NOT at 5 km/hr it was more a 25 km/hr so we cut our 100k short, but still ended up with a good 80k. This one will count in a couple of weeks and others will hurt. I rode my Major Jake set up for road one last time as I could not get the Tarmac finished this morning. BUT after I got home and warmed up, cleaned up and had my "breakfast" I was back out on the Tarmac, between loads of laundry and feeding the dogs and family. New bottom bracket bearings, new rear wheel bearings, both sets were a pain to get but there in now. Then I changed out the look of the bike with new cables, tape and an aluminum handle bar... at 180 lbs I just don't think carbon is made for big strong riders. It's blingged and ready to go! Next ride's a wrench ride, where you take your multi-tool to make sure everything's right.

Riding in Shortsleves and Sun!

Wow two posts in one day. The weatherman was WRONG! The sun came out and I went out. I needed to get back onto my training, it's pretty hard to get motivated in cold and wet... not to mention what it does to the bikes, now the cross bike is creaking. I really like this ride as its has some good rollers and the road is pretty quiet. Though I did see my friend Heather out on her bike "hi, Heather", sorry I did not stop but I had dad taxi responsibilities that required me to stick to the schedule. BTW Heather if you look at the map this the Cheese Factory-Maple Manor you asked about... First one up Maple Manor wins...

Interval Training 2x10' z4 by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Down and Out

Well, my Tarmac is... The Bottom bracket bearing on the left side is trashed. It is an Enduro ceramic bearings but the races are steel and I'm assuming that road dirt over a couple of rainy days was pulled in. Enduro's moving their warehouse and trying to get someone on the phone is not easy. I've e-mailed back and forth but no definitive answers on the correct part, and I don't want to order something like this twice. I have to send money to PayPal and that takes time then ordering takes time.

I know that some will say they take credit cards. In 2009 the economy took a dive and so did my finances and business. Knowing something had to change I took a class offered by our church called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey, many of you might have heard him on the radio. It was time for me to do something different and to date I now no longer own any credit cards, and deal mostly with cash. I hardly even use my debit card which has cut my business' monthly bank fee down by $30.

In October I did find out my rear wheel bearings were all trashed out, so later today I'm going to check my front wheel bearings. The headset was replaced a year-ago.

This is why I love bikes and HATE cars, I can tear down a bike all by myself and I know how to put it back together. Cars... half the stuff I can't even find...

Spring will show up soon, weather finally got warmer and if it will stop raining tonight I want to get out and do a good ride.

Back home and Riding

I am back home and riding my regular haunts and with my regular "crew".
My university friend John B. has gotten a Specialized Roubaix and a Garmin 500 and has been posting on Facebook via Garmin Connect which is a "cloud" training log. I have now set up an account there and I've just loaded my spring riding on. Too bad I did not know before I cleaned the memory out of the bike computer. I could have loaded all my rides on there, and had a complete log. Other than the older rides I am saying good by to Training Peaks which is also a good cloud log, and if you are really serious has some pay-per-use stuff on it (I have no experience with)

I've loaded everything up and have posted two links here more for me to see how it transfer... I still will use Map my Ride because they have mapping abilities. I have had to use an on line "converter" to get the files to the right format for the bike computer. It's nice to share courses with others.

Training Ride with Greg by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Dundas-Burlington hills with Rob and Anja. by texastutt at Garmin Connect - Details

Home again

We got up at the usual time this morning and Peter and I were dropped off at the train station by 7:45 a.m. I was off to the airport and he was off to Holland to see family. We had pastries and coffee waiting for our trains. Mine showed up and I headed off to board. The TGV is a great way to travel, and I was landed in Charles de Gaul, where I zipped to my ticket booth #2A, and the circus began. Waiting in this line then, no we want you to wait in this line where the ticket agents are having a chit-chat. Then to security for a posted 7 minute wait... It was more like 57 minutes! Needless to say when I arrived at the gate I was 5 minutes late, and this old ugly gate keeper started in on me, I had enough of CdG hospitality and told her so, in plane English. The other gate keeper was much nicer and I got on to the plane for the long marathon of "pond hopping"

Back in Brantford now. Heather managed to rearrange her schedule to pick me up. First thing was get all the stuff out of the truck, second was take the dogs for a good long walk, they were all very happy to see me. Saw two of my riding buddies out, Egon and Jimmy, headed to pick up another rider.

I then unpacked the bike and cleaned it, and cleaned it some more... then did a bit of mechanical on it... all in all three weeks on cobbles, dirt, and one rain storm ride it was really not all that too bad.

Then picked up Céline from dance and now home just planing the rest of the week.